gaijin
06-19-2005, 11:56 AM
American Teams Triumph at Le Mans
Written by: Cassio Cortes
Le Mans, France – 6/19/2005 Champion's No.3 Audi outlasted the competition to the deliver the first American win at La Sarthe in 38 years.
The bulletproof Audi R8 took its fifth 24 Hours of Le Mans win despite entering this year’s edition of the classic enduro as the underdog, having to outlast rather than outpace the competition to emerge victorious at La Sarthe.
It was a race filled with landmark achievements, as the Florida-based Champion Racing team and its winning R8 driven by Tom Kristensen, J.J. Lehto and Marco Werner became the first American team to win Le Mans since Ford’s last victory with the iconic GT40 back in 1967. In addition, Danish Kristensen set an all-time record by taking his seventh win - in only his ninth start - breaking the tie with the legendary Jackie Ickx who counts six overall triumphs.
Victory did not come easy for the Champion trio, however, as only with about 90 minutes to go they were given a chance to breathe easy as the polesitting No.16 Pescarolo of Jean-Christophe Boullion, Emmanuel Collard and Erik Comas made an unscheduled pit stop with overheating problems. The all-French team was lapping some five seconds quicker than the leading Audi by then, but the time lost at that point made its two-lap deficit to the Champion R8 simply insurmountable.
The Floridian squad took two of the podium slots with Frank Biela, Emmanuelle Pirro and Allan McNish bringing the sister Audi home on third place, four laps behind the Pescarolo. The French ORECA Audi (Montagny/Gounon/Ortelli) finished fourth.
Fifth place overall was just another impressive mark for Corvette Racing, as its duo of C6.Rs managed to equally outlast the quicker Aston Martin DBR9s to score a 1-2 finish in the GT1 class.
Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Jan Magnussen took class honors ahead of teammates Ron Fellows, Johnny O’Connell and Max Papis, who were just behind at sixth overall.
Problems struck the favorite Astons within minutes of each other. The No.58 of Tomas Enge/Peter Kox/Pedro Lamy coasted to a halt - out of fuel - with an hour and a half to go, while the No.59 of David Brabham, Stephane Sarrazin and Darren Turner rallied through overheating problems to finish third in class.
GT2 honors fell upon the steady Rockenfeller/Lieb/Hindery trio of Alex Job Racing’s Porsche 911, which practically led the 24 hours flag-to-flag and finished 10th overall. One spot behind and runner-up category finisher was the White Lightning Porsche steered by Long/Bergmeister/Bernhard.
Written by: Cassio Cortes
Le Mans, France – 6/19/2005 Champion's No.3 Audi outlasted the competition to the deliver the first American win at La Sarthe in 38 years.
The bulletproof Audi R8 took its fifth 24 Hours of Le Mans win despite entering this year’s edition of the classic enduro as the underdog, having to outlast rather than outpace the competition to emerge victorious at La Sarthe.
It was a race filled with landmark achievements, as the Florida-based Champion Racing team and its winning R8 driven by Tom Kristensen, J.J. Lehto and Marco Werner became the first American team to win Le Mans since Ford’s last victory with the iconic GT40 back in 1967. In addition, Danish Kristensen set an all-time record by taking his seventh win - in only his ninth start - breaking the tie with the legendary Jackie Ickx who counts six overall triumphs.
Victory did not come easy for the Champion trio, however, as only with about 90 minutes to go they were given a chance to breathe easy as the polesitting No.16 Pescarolo of Jean-Christophe Boullion, Emmanuel Collard and Erik Comas made an unscheduled pit stop with overheating problems. The all-French team was lapping some five seconds quicker than the leading Audi by then, but the time lost at that point made its two-lap deficit to the Champion R8 simply insurmountable.
The Floridian squad took two of the podium slots with Frank Biela, Emmanuelle Pirro and Allan McNish bringing the sister Audi home on third place, four laps behind the Pescarolo. The French ORECA Audi (Montagny/Gounon/Ortelli) finished fourth.
Fifth place overall was just another impressive mark for Corvette Racing, as its duo of C6.Rs managed to equally outlast the quicker Aston Martin DBR9s to score a 1-2 finish in the GT1 class.
Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Jan Magnussen took class honors ahead of teammates Ron Fellows, Johnny O’Connell and Max Papis, who were just behind at sixth overall.
Problems struck the favorite Astons within minutes of each other. The No.58 of Tomas Enge/Peter Kox/Pedro Lamy coasted to a halt - out of fuel - with an hour and a half to go, while the No.59 of David Brabham, Stephane Sarrazin and Darren Turner rallied through overheating problems to finish third in class.
GT2 honors fell upon the steady Rockenfeller/Lieb/Hindery trio of Alex Job Racing’s Porsche 911, which practically led the 24 hours flag-to-flag and finished 10th overall. One spot behind and runner-up category finisher was the White Lightning Porsche steered by Long/Bergmeister/Bernhard.